The man was accused of sneaking in through the exit door of the theater in order to avoid paying for a ticket.
— Read on www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/ahwatukee/2019/03/13/larry-shelton-accuses-amc-ahwatukee-phoenix-arizona-racial-profiling-video-goes-viral/3146908002/
One of the first Memorial Day celebrations in the United States was by newly freed slaves on May 1, 1865, in Charleston, South Carolina.
Not long after the Civil War ended, about 1,000 freed slaves, members of the U.S. Colored Troops, and some locals organized a ceremony to bury Union troops who died due to horrendous conditions of a prison created at what was once a racetrack, History.com reports.
They honored the dead by singing hymns and placing flowers on their graves. An archway over the cemetery was engraved with the words “Martyrs of the Race Course,” according to The New York Times.
What happened some 152 years ago would remain buried for over a century until a renowned white Yale University professor made a stunning discovery. After years of research, a respected Yale scholar discovered that Blacks founded what is now known to millions of Americans as Memorial Day.
Erased from history, it’s a story that has stirred mixed emotions and jolted the pride of white cities, some of which for decades have claimed to be the birthplace of one of the nation’s most hallowed holidays.
None of these claims included the Black narrative, but what was once Union Cemetery is now a sprawling, 60-acre park in predominantly white Charleston, which amid lush gardens, ponds, a gazebo and fountain sits a bronze plaque acknowledging the park as the site of the first Memorial Day and where thousands decorated the graves of Black soldiers who were re-buried there after Confederate soldiers interred them in a mass grave in 1865.
The soldiers’ families held a parade and decorated the graves on May 1, 1865. Back then, it was an event that was known as “Decoration Day.” Today, the holiday is known as Memorial Day, after Congress passed a law in 1968. The move made Memorial Day an official federal holiday that went into effect in 1971.
Today, Memorial Day is considered the unofficial start of summer as beaches and theme parks around the country open for the season.
While the holiday has become a time for picnics and backyard barbeques, Memorial Day is still considered a solemn time to honor fallen war heroes. For decades cities have spun their own narrative of how Memorial Day began. It’s a practice that increased after Charleston created its own story while ignoring local news reports of Blacks starting a new tradition of honoring dead soldiers.
For many Black veterans, the day can be bittersweet as they honor a nation’s heroes after experiencing decades of racism and discrimination in America. Despite integration and civil rights gains, many Blacks struggle to feel accepted as Americans because their history is often not included or is shut out of the national narrative.
Born in born in Monroe, Louisiana February 17, 1942, Huey Newton attended the University of California, Santa Cruz and studied law attaining his Bachelor’s Degree and PhD. While Newton attended Merritt College in California, Newton and his comrade, Chairman Bobby Seale, organized the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in October 1966 with Huey as Minister of Defense.
The BPP achieved national and international recognition through their active role in the Black Liberation Movement and in politics dealing with race relations of the 1960s and 1970s. The Party’s political agenda included better housing, better jobs, and proper education for all Black people, which was all documented in their Ten-Point Program.
Black revolutionary icon Huey Newton was killed in the streets of Oakland, California On August 22, 1989. Newton was fatally shot on Center Street in the Lower Bottoms neighborhood of West Oakland by a 24-year-old Black Guerrilla Family member. His last words to his killer before being shot twice in the head were,
You can kill my body, and you can take my life, but you can never kill my soul. My soul will live forever!”
Newton’s killer, Tyrone Robinson, was convicted of the murder in 1991 and sentenced to up to 32 years to life in prison.
Still even today the works and ideas of the prolific leader Huey P. Newton live on and “will live forever”…
Black Panthers – What You Should Know
Prisons that withhold menstrual pads humiliate women and violate basic human rights.
AZ Legislature, made up of mostly men, will decide whether women deserve to have more than 12 Pads per month for their menstrual cycle. Seriously?
UPDATE!
Immediate step for immediate action! A huge victory for our women and our conscious! DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY THOUSANDS OF WOMEN WE JUST HELPED!!!
FROM AZ REPUBLIC:
After backlash, Arizona prison raises minimum number of free pads for incarcerated women.
A day after an Arizona lawmaker killed a bill to provide a free, unlimited supply of feminine-hygiene products to women in Arizona’s state prison, the Arizona Department of Corrections announced Tuesday evening that it will change its policy on the issue.
“The Arizona Department of Corrections appreciates and values the comments and feedback it has received in recent days regarding sanitary napkin products provided to female inmates. Department personnel have accordingly reviewed the department’s current policy and practice.
“As a result of this review, the department will continue to provide sanitary napkins free of charge to all of its female inmates, regardless of need. Effective immediately, the department will increase the minimum baseline quantity that inmates receive each month, from 12 to 36. As is the current practice, an inmate may request and, without charge, receive additional pads, if necessary. Additional product options will continue to be available through the inmate store.
“We believe this change addresses and resolves, in an appropriate and timely fashion, the concerns raised in the last week.”
#BlackWomenofFaith
#LetitFlow
Read More:
It’s A Bloody Shame to Limit Sanitation Napkins to Women During Menstrual Cycle! We say #LetItFlow!
#BlackWomenofFaith
#LetitFlow
After formerly incarcerated women testified in detail about the risks and humiliation caused by sanitary pad restrictions inside the Arizona prison system, a tribunal of men voted today to unlock a bill that would allow female prisoners to access as many sanitary pads as they need to manage their periods.
The Arizona prison system currently provides a maximum of 12 pads per month to all women inmates, forcing them to ration the way they manage periods, “free bleed,” or rely on unsanitary, solutions.
The bill introduced by Arizona state representative Athena Salman would change the arbitrary rules and enable women to access unlimited sanitary pads as needed — but first it had to pass the nine-man committee. Though they expressed their discomfort with some of the testimony, the men voted five-to-four to allow the bill to proceed to the House floor for a full hearing.To get additional pads, the women have to ask a guard, often a man, for permission and then pay for them using their commissary accounts. But many women, especially those who earn just 15 cents an hour performing prison labor, can’t afford the extra pads.
TAKE ACTION! Black Women of Faith has partnered with the AZ Humans Rights Committee to take action against this inhumane treatment of women in Arizona’s Prison System! ! Join Us! Sign Petition Here to Sign to Support the Menstrual Equity Bill! #LetitFlow
“Bloodstained pants, bartering and begging for pads was a regular occurrence,” one woman who was formerly incarcerated testified before the state House of Representatives Military,
Veterans, and Regulatory Affairs committee.
“You’ve got to really think if you want to sink One former inmate testified that guards punished women for possessing contraband when they find ripped pads turned into a tampon. Another said guards frequently denied requests for more pads.
“The humiliation is really something you carry with you forever,” said Sue Ellen Allen, who spent seven years at the state’s lone women’s prison which has about 4000 inmates.
Women receive 12 pads per month, allowing for only two changes a day in an average five-day monthly cycle. The lack of sanitary supplies is so bad in women’s prisons that pads fly right out of an inmate’s pants: prison maxi pads don’t have wings and they have only average adhesive so, when a woman wears the same pad for several days because she can’t find a fresh one, that pad often fails to stick to her underwear and the pad falls out. It’s disgusting but it’s true.
Arizona is not alone in being cheap with its supplies for women. Inmates in Michigan filed suit last December alleging that pads and tampons are so scarce that their civil rights have been violated. One woman bled through her uniform and was required to dress herself in her soiled jumpsuit after stripping for a search.
The reasons for keeping supplies for women in prison limited are not purely financial. Even though keeping inmates clean would seem to be in the prison’s self-interest, prisons control their wards by keeping sanitation out of reach. Stains on clothes seep into self-esteem and serve as an indelible reminder of one’s powerlessness in prison. Asking for something you need crystallizes the power differential between inmates and guards; the officer can either meet your need or he can refuse you, and there’s little you can do to influence his decision.
To ask a male guard for a tampon is humiliating in itself. But it’s more than that: it’s an acknowledgement of the fact that, ultimately, the prison controls your cleanliness, your health and your feelings of esteem.
There are ways to restore dignity to America’s inmates. For example, we could remove the entire sanitary supply problem if American prisons bought the newly-released Cherish Pads for female inmates, which are super absorbent, and help protect the environment as well. They are cost effective and promote proper health, hygiene, and well being.
Though many argue that prisoners cannot be pampered in jail, having access to sanitary pads is not a luxury – it is a basic human right. Just like no-one should have to beg to use the toilet, or be given toilet paper, women too must be able to retain their dignity during their menstrual cycle. Using periods to punish women simply has no place in any American prison.
CAMPAIGN #LETITFLOW #CodeRed
1. Write to AZ HOUSE OF REPS!
1700 West Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85007
2. Sign Petition! 📜 End This Bloody Mess!
3. Make Donation! ❣️ Let it Flow!
Salman, the bill’s sponsor, said an additional $80,000 by the state congress would provide unlimited sanitary products for all of the women in need for our state.
Edited by Katt Mckinney
This weeks #BlackMovieSunday is “PANTHER!”
A dramatized account of the story of The Black Panther Party of Self-Defense.
Funny how we showed this star studded cast, produced by same man who produced “New Jack City” not very much love in the box office. The movie made less than 7 million dollars. Years later we praise a cartoon? Hmmmm. My people. Any hoot, ENJOY!
Movie Trailer:
WATCH MOVIE HERE:
Featuring a Notable and Strong Cast:
Kadeem Hardison as Judge.
Wesley Jonathan as Bobby Hutton.
Bokeem Woodbine as Tyrone.
Joe Don Baker as Brimmer.
M. Emmet Walsh as Dorsett.
Courtney B. Vance as Bobby Seale.
Tyrin Turner as Cy.
Marcus Chong as Huey P. Newton.
Angela Bassett
Bobby Brown
Dick Gregory
Chris Rock
Nefertiti
And more! A must see!